I'm in the process of cleaning this painting. You can see here I've cleaned
this area at this side, and a similar area down at this side, and you can see a real marked difference
between the cleaned areas and the uncleaned areas, particularly in the sky.
Hello, my name's Paul Ackroyd from the National Gallery conservation department and I will be
talking about the restoration of this painting, Constables 'Hay Wain'. It is one of the
gems of the National Gallery collection and is rarely off show where it hangs in in Room 34.
Like many 17th century Dutch paintings of landscapes, this painting has a very
simple narrative. It really describes the journey of the hay wagon as it crosses the mill pond.
Here you can see the marks left by the wheels as it's crossing the bank into the mill pond,
and the wheel at the front here is turning right towards this stream, where it will ford it
and cross the meadows to join these figures in the far distance who are gathering the hay.
Presumably this almost fully laden wagon here will then make the return journey across
the stream. Just before starting on this painting he made a full-size sketch of it
which is in the V&A collection. In that sketch he shows a horse and rider in the foreground,
on the bank of the mill pond, about here, and in this final painting that horse and rider was
included. You can see the dark shape of it around here, but this was painted out and a barrel which
again you can see here as a pentiment was put in, but that then that too was painted out. This
just left the dog, which was a far more elegant compositional solution, because it sort of draws
your attention to the main centre of interest, the hay wagon, and the curve of its body acts as a nice
counterpoint to this sweeping arc of the of the mill pond. As for the restoration of the painting,
it was cleaned during the war in 1942, and you can see the effects of the varnish that
had been put on then, which is about 80 years ago. The varnish is quite noticeably discoloured,
particularly visible in the sky here, and the effects of removing that varnish are that you
can now really closely see the the drama and the brush work in the sky. But also you can see
now more clearly the aerial perspective with these sort of blues and pale greens in the far distance.
So that now the landscape really pushes back in space. In the foreground you can see
more clearly the reflections on the water and the cooler tones here of the of the river, and
this riverbank which had been quite flat like it is here, now moves subtly in and out.
Also with Willy Lott's cottage, the white plaster work and so on, and the details are
much more visible. Details such as this smoke coming out of the chimney is much more apparent.
The painting is in remarkably good condition, and it won't require very much
and it won't require very much in the way of retouching
There are only a few small damages to the edges where it's been abraded a little
It is expected that this painting will return to the galleries and go back on display in
late January or early February next year. If you'd like to find out more about the painting and
the collection of the National Gallery, please click here and here. Thank you.